by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

OAKLAND - When Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob returns to his courtside seat at Oracle Arena on Friday for a home game against the Sacramento Kings, the look on his face should say everything about the sordid state of these affairs.

His once darling of a team is flying in the danger zone of late, having lost to the lowly New York Knicks at home Sunday and thereby kept the doomsday prospect of falling out of playoff contention alive at the worst of times. The Texas Two Step looms large this week, with a Tuesday game vs. the Dallas Mavericks and Wednesday against the surging San Antonio Spurs.

Meanwhile, the topic of coach Mark Jackson and his fluid future will remain front and center so long as the postseason remains in question. Jackson hasn't been helping his cause of late, not only with the losing (four of the past eight games and a 21-15 record since Jan. 8) but with the recent decision to reassign assistant coach Brian Scalabrine to the Warriors' NBA Development League team that invited all these questions about how much friction exists behind their curtain.

There have been no public backings or votes of confidence from Lacob since, but only because ownership and management see this story as the mess Jackson made and must now clean up. According to two people with knowledge of the situation, Jackson was advised to wait until the offseason to part ways with Scalabrine because it wouldn't cause such a commotion then. Instead, he insisted that Scalabrine - who is very friendly with Lacob (he played for the Boston Celtics when Lacob was a minority owner there) and Warriors general manager Bob Myers (who had been Scalabrine's player agent) - needed to be sent to the Santa Cruz (Calif.) Warriors now. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the situation.

But silly subplot and all, Jackson's situation is as transparent as they come. With one more season remaining on his contract, it's clear that he must avoid a possible offseason firing by getting the Warriors back into the playoffs and doing some damage. As is almost always the case in professional sports, it comes down to making the owner happy.

Lacob's group bought the team three years ago with a championship-or-bust creed that, inevitably, runs the risk of harboring unrealistic expectations. It also tends to breed boldness, from the way in which Jackson was first hired (with no coaching experience) to the uncompromising and pragmatic approach Lacob is taking in assessing Jackson's long-term role (Jackson wanted an extension last summer, but Lacob saw no need to treat a second-round loss to the Spurs as if it were a championship and instead picked up the team's option for 2014-15). So it is in the here and now, then, that Jackson and his players who have stood so strongly behind him must find a way to stop pouring salt in their boss' flesh-eating wound like they did yet again on Sunday night.

With chaos all around him and a contemplative and conflicted expression on his face, one of the most exuberant owners in all the NBA sat motionless in the final minutes. Lacob's fiancée, Nicole Curran, and local legend MC Hammer were at his sides, standing like everyone else in the always-boisterous building.

But seated and stoic, Lacob was in a world all his own. He had his hands rested in his lap on his jeans and his sportcoat-covered shoulders slouched. He barely flinched when Warriors small forward Andre Iguodala nearly saved the day by stripping the ball from Knicks star Carmelo Anthony with 5 seconds left, then had no reaction when the Warriors were unable to get a final shot off in their last possession. When it was all over, Lacob walked alone through the disappointed crowd, pausing to let people pass and morosely moving about.

Anyone in the Bay Area knows how Lacob gets after home losses of any kind - especially home losses against losing teams. There haven't been as many in reality as there likely have been in his mind, but it's a safe bet that he'd rather forget Jan. 15 (a home loss to the Denver Nuggets), Feb. 4 (Charlotte Bobcats), March 14 (Cleveland Cavaliers) and, of course, that Knicks loss. Change the outcome of those four games, and the Warriors would have entered Monday a half game from home-court advantage in the playoffs.

There's irony here, too, as Lacob came in three years ago preaching the merits of a defense-first franchise only to see his team eventually flourish on that end (third in points allowed per possession after being 14th last season) while slipping offensively (13th in points scored per possession after being 11th last season). In all, Golden State has improved overall (45-28 compared to 41-32 at this point last season) while nearing its first 50-win season since 1993-94. Still, Lacob's occasional ire is no doubt rooted in the fact that the Warriors have already matched their home loss total from last season (24-13 this season to 28-13 last, which they followed by going 4-2 at home in the playoffs).

As this final regular-season chapter unfolds, the good news for Jackson is that he clearly has the support of his players. Franchise centerpiece Stephen Curry and others responded to all the recent Jackson chatter with the strongest of praise and support, and former All-Star forward David Lee told USA TODAY Sports that Jackson "absolutely" has the backing of the entire locker room.

"We have one of the best locker rooms, in my opinion, in the whole league," said Lee, the ninth-year pro who played his first five seasons with the Knicks. "I've been on teams that had awful chemistry and the coaching staff is constantly arguing with players and vice versa, and there has been none of that here. The word 'dysfunction' (which has been used in the media to describe the Warriors) is one that we've been laughing about, almost making a joke out of it, like are you serious?

"We trust Coach Jackson. We trust each other as teammates. There's not a whole lot else you can worry about. Our chemistry is great. I think that we have a chance to do special things this year, so I'm just not going to let this bother me. We believe in Coach."

The bad news for Jackson is he won't have center Andrew Bogut on this road trip because of a bruised groin area and will be without Lee's services in Dallas and possibly San Antonio because of a hamstring injury. Yet as Jackson said for the umpteenth time Sunday, the Warriors are a "no-excuse basketball team." And rest assured, Lacob isn't in the mood to hear any.

It's natural to wonder if Lacob isn't already daydreaming about his next coach, and it's no secret he has a great affinity for TNT analyst and potential Knicks coaching candidate Steve Kerr. It's fair to ask if Jackson's personality and pattern of clashing with assistant coaches may lead to his undoing. But personal dynamics aside, the results, as always, will play the biggest part here.

"Every game is important for us," Jackson said. "(The Mavericks and Spurs are) two tough teams, two talented teams, two teams playing for something. So we'll regroup and look forward to taking care of business on the road."